Ok, so this is only a pseudo-Nationals
report. And there’s a very strong reason for that:

I lost ALL the notes I took.

Those who played me, I apologize now for not
knowing any names, period. The main reason I write down
names is so I can try to remember them later. So, when this
goes up and you see I didn’t use your name, feel free to
shoot me an email at
Cardz2004@hotmail.com and I’ll put you in my next
article. And my apologies to for the lateness of the
article too. It’s just taken me so long to recall all the
details for the Saturday section (and its not even complete
as is). That aside, let’s get to the pseudo-report.

Thursday:

I got to Origins on Wednesday and decided to
just get my pre-registration badge, grab an Event
Registration book and plan out my con that night at the
hotel. I got to the convention early enough on Thursday
that almost no one was in the event registration line.
Score! I only got shut out of one tournament (Risk 2210.
Sadness), that was OK. Everything else I wanted to do was
open.

I usually use my first day at a con to go
through the dealer hall and get as much free stuff as a I
can. This includes playing a LOT of games I wouldn’t
normally play, including but not limited to: HorrorClix,
Warlord, and a game called Killer Bunnies. Now, I’d heard
of Killer Bunnies before, but had never played it. I
happened to be passing the booth right before they were
starting a game. I decided to jump in and learn the game.

After playing for about ten minutes, I was
hooked. Honestly, Killer Bunnies is the easiest and most
elegant game I’ve played in a long time. And on top of
that, I won my first game which entered me in a drawing for
an uncut, signed sheet of cards that they were giving away
at the end of the convention. I even got a chance to meet
the creator of the game and he signed the giant card they
were using for the drawing (Side Note: it makes a beautiful
addition to my room right now). The guys at Playroom
Entertainment are wonderful and, if you’re heading to any
other major Conventions this year, make sure to check them
out along with Looney Labs, undoubtedly the two most
original and fun game companies out now.

As usual, I spent a LOT of time with Looney
Labs, learning how to play their newest game (Treehouse) and
playing in two of their tournaments that afternoon and
evening. I ended up winning my first tournament ever at
Origins (A Fluxx Worlds qualifier; the Worlds round was on
Sunday at Noon). I also made the final table of Martian
Chess that evening before going to play some late night
Are You a Werewolf? Needless to say, I’m not as crazy
as some Werewolf? players, so I didn’t stay up all
night. I was helping out Looney Labs with a Teacher’s Hall
Pass presentation the next day, so I needed some sleep.

Also on Thursday, I traded for most of the
cards I needed for my deck. More on the deck I ran on
Saturday’s report.

Friday:

More or less did more perusing of the
dealer’s room until the demo for Teacher’s Hall Pass. Then,
at 2, I played in the Zendo tournament run by Looney Labs. I
figured it wouldn’t go longer than 4 hours, so I should be
OK. I didn’t have any more events that day and was just
planning on trading for more cards that evening.

Well, I was wrong the tournament went from
2-10:30. Over eight hours of mentally draining, abstract
thinking. Ouch. I did do very well in the tournament and
made the final table (mostly through mental endurance) but
lost on a very difficult rule (though not as difficult as
the one in second round…). I was so drained after playing;
I only played one round of Werewolf? and went to bed
at my hotel. The next day was Nationals, and I needed to be
at least semi-conscious to play the next day.

(Side Note: After finishing the Zendo
tournament, I headed to the Food Court for a reaaaaly late
lunch/late dinner at 11 pm. While there, I picked up the
last cards I needed and noticed a growing trend: a lot of
people were playing DragTrode and not LBS. Bad news for my
deck…)

Saturday:

OK, so, the deck.

I decided to run MetaNite because it would
more or less be viable in the next format and should punish
many other decks in the format with a quick setup and early
Crush and Burn or head-flipped Agilities. Here’s the
initial deck list I decided to run:

---------------------------------

DaMPer Ver. 3.1

Pokemon:

3 Beldum d

2 Metang DX

3 Metagross d

3 Dratini d (Thunder Wave)

2 Dragonair d (Twister)

3 Dragonite d

1 Pidgey d

1 Pidgeot d

3 Holon’s Castform

Trainers:

4 Holon Transceiver

3 Holon Mentor

2 Holon Researcher

2 Holon Adventurer

1 Holon Scientist

1 Holon Lass

4 Rare Candy

4 Desert Ruins

1 POW! Hand Extension

1 ATM: Rock

1 Warp Point

Energy:
9 Lightning

4 Metal

2 Holon GL

----------------------------------

Now, I don’t claim to be right all the time,
so I decided to ask a couple of my other friend’s who play
for their opinions of the deck. I got a few…interesting
suggestions, but only one I would consider taking.

When I arrived at the con and played with the
deck a little, I decided 3 Mentor was overkill and I should
do 3 Researcher and 2 Mentor. One person suggested I only
go for 2 Researcher and 1 Adventurer and add in 2 Rocket’s
Admin. Now, this thought had passed my mind, and I liked
it. But I didn’t have the Admin to use. Luckily, he had
one I could borrow. So now all I needed was a second Admin
to put in my deck.

I found it and made the quick change about
forty-five minutes before the cutoff began. I finished my
decklist twenty minutes before the cutoff, got in line with
a few friends from the Guardtower, and registered. Then the
wait before the first round started.

-------------------------------------

Final fix:

-1 Adventurer

-1 Mentor

+2 Admin.

-------------------------------------

When they announced there would be 9 rounds
because of the 300+ players in the tournament, I knew this
would be a loooooong day. Honestly, after the marathon
Zendo tournament the day before, my mind was already fried.
And another 9 rounds of more frying was just not going to be
fun. But I knew I had to do well, as this was my only shot
at a trip to Worlds.

-------------------------------------

OK, from here on out, things are going to be
listed in a bulleted form of random points, all of which
pertain to the day and the deck I ran. It’s going to be
jumpy, so you may not understand it all. If you have any
questions at all in this section, funnel them toward
Cardz2004@hotmail.com and I’ll try to answer them there.

-------------------------------------

Round 1:

My First loss was in Round One to Lissanne.
The only reason I remember this person’s name and no one
else’s is because she has a similar problem to mine: our
names are very unique. She, like me, has only met one other
person who has their name spelled the same way. That said,
our match wasn’t great.

Turn 2 90 damage to a Dratini d from a Dark
Slowking. Now, I could have stopped this attack, but I
simply hadn’t played this deck enough since I considered it
pretty rogue. I even played the deck in Round 1 of Ohio
States and just completely forgot how this deck played.

---(we played a second game since the first
one took about 30 seconds from the start of time. She beat
me again, but I actually got running after a few turns.)

Round 2:

My next match I got set up very quickly with
a T1 Meta that netted a bunch of early cards a few early KOs
with Crash and Burn. I never thought that evolving turn 1
would ever be a smart move, but this deck has proven it
wrong, especially if you need the extra cards or need to
charge up your bench ASAP.

--Insert lunch break after round 2, where I
found the BEST peanut butter sandwich ever from Krema Nut
Company, a company stationed out of Columbus. I had a PB
Apple Cheesecake sandwich: Crunchy Peanut Butter, Cinnamon
Cream Cheese, and Apple preserves. Put it on wheat with a
large water: priceless. Can’t wait to try this at home.

Round 3: was another loss, but it was a long
loss with us trading prizes until he knocked down my
Agility-ing Draggy.

Round 4:

Round 4 I ended up beating the first
DragTrode I saw all day. We were evenly matched all the way
through and I happened to win on a fluke. I needed a Rare
Candy to get out the Dragonite d in my hand to Charge a (L)
energy from the discard to do 110 to an Active R. Sneasle EX
for a 2 prize KO and the lead at 1-2. Rare Candy was card 4
in a well-timed Delta Control, allowing my to Mentor for a
Dratini and Candy out the Draggy. After the KO by Metagross
(I got the KO by Crash and Burning away all my energy), my
opponent checked his discard pile. With that KO, I had
ridded him of ALL of his energy. With no energy left in his
deck, he scooped and conceded. Great match.

Round 5:

Round 4 started by wave of wins, but many by
luck. I made it past Round 5 when my opponent (playing one
of the few Machamp HL decks out there) had both his Pidgeot
RG prized. I endedup getting both a Meta and a Draggy by
turn 3, so he didn’t get to draw many prizes. And my
Pidgeot d made its lone appearance in the tournament here,
shutting down his Jirachi, which could have helped saved
him.

--(Side Note here: The Pidgeot in this deck
was a 2-1-2, but it became too cumbersome for the deck to
support well. With the 1-1, I rarely saw it at all and
NEVER saw it when I needed it (see game 7). I may be
cutting it, depending what’s popular in the next format.)

Round 6…:

…was another slugfest that didn’t get started
for 20 minutes. This was against a Rogue MewEX deck that
ran Raichu EX (yeah, I was rather confused…). I had two
early Energy attaches, but he hit two good ER2s, sending me
back to no energy. After that (about 3 minutes in), we
spent 15-20 minutes setting up, but drawing NO energy. At
about the same time, we both hit a Holon Lass and got a
decent amount of energy. However, I was able to KO the
pokémon he was powering up, leaving him E-less again. I was
down on energy after a Crash and Burn, but I hit another
Transceiver that I used to net a H.Lass, getting me the rest
of the energy I needed to win.

--I can’t remember Round 7 other than I
lost. I believe this was my loss to a well-tuned DragTrode,
can’t remember. Help anyone? I know that this person had a
PokeGym screen name because they asked me to list it. If
you know who you are, email me please. You deserve credit
for the win.

Round 8:

I hate to mention round 8 because it’s the
win I shouldn’t have gotten. I was facing my only LBS of
the tourney and we were both pretty even the whole way
through. I got started VERY early with a t2 Meta. But we
both started with active Holon’s Castforms, so we both
stalled a few turns. I did get set-up with both a Draggy
and Meta ds and ended up going up 5-3 on prizes. He endedup
KOing a Draggy that was taking quite a few prizes and I
returned the favor by placing a Desert Ruins and KOing his
Lugia EX with a Meta d. I had a ATM: Rock and evolution in
hand, ready to use when the damage got to 50 on his Candied
Blasty EX. However, I never got the chance.

He played a Pokemon Retreiver to put Lugia
EX, Holon’s Castform, and a Squirtle back into his deck. He
then played Mentor to get back those three, benched the
Lugia, and attached three energy, retreated his active
Pidgeot, and then, just to make sure he was safe, the used
Rocket’s Admin.

We both shuffled our hands into our decks and
I was about to offer cut when I noticed something. I belive
I muttered something to the effect of “Oh $#!*…” under my
breath and then I said it: “Wait, you’ve played a supporter
already this turn.”

He and I both stopped and chatted about if we
remembered hands, and we more or less did. I called a judge
and asked for the ruling. He got another judge who asked on
the situation. We both told him, told him we remembered out
hands, and he went to double check with the judges. We both
deduced from our minor experience as judges that it should
probably end up being a prize penalty, giving me the win.

--(Side Note: I hate winning any games by
stupid technicalities, especially something as minuscule as
this. Honestly, I’ve been playing two games for essentially
20-24 hours and he’s being playing this all weekend. WE’re
both brain fried and neither of us want to admit the
inevitable outcome of the judge’s ruling.)

The judge came back, confirming my worst
fears: I would draw a prize because of the screw-up, giving
me the win. I apologized profusely to my opponent and he
seemed to shrug it off. But we both knew what this meant:
only I had a chance at hitting top 32, seeing as how only a
handful of 6-3s would make the top cut. I’d more or less
kept someone from the Sunday cut because of brain-deadness.

--It is hear, after the ruling, that I
discover that the judge’s are now giving us a thirty minute
dinner break. I nearly cry right now, because it’s been a
he*ck* of a long day and I really just want this tournament
over now that I know I’ll have a winning record. (NOTE: my
resistance had been shot all day, so I knew I wouldn’t make
final cut with anything less than 7-2). I run in to Alex
Brosseu (sorry for the misspelling here) and Ness on the way
down the stairs to the food court. Alex remembers me
from a tournament a couple years ago. That tournament just
happened to be four years ago and I hadn’t seemed him
since. He’s a great guy and y’all should get to know him

Round 9…:

…Is a disappointment because of a t2 Menatric
EX from him. I can’t get a single trainer out and stall on
a Dragonair d for a few turns before dying to chump
blocking. He played well and I just hit a poor start. Good
game, just not for me.

----------------------------------

I didn’t even stay around for standings. I
went up to Loonely Labs, modded a game of Werewolf?,
chatted with a friend who’s a Rabbit for about twenty
minutes, and then left for my hotel room to sleep. Even
though I didn’t make Nats: Day 2, I still had a big
tournament tomorrow: Fluxx Worlds.

----------------------------------

Sunday:

Slept in until about 10:30 and went straight
to the Con without eating breakfast. Picked up a muffin and
a coffee (yeah, needed caffeine for the first time all
Convention on a Sunday…) at the Java Stop, and headed up to
the Lab to wait for the finals of Fluxx to start. I played
a couple rounds of Treehouse with some people and then the
tournament started.

Needless to say, I didn’t do so well. We
played the first to win two games and I didn’t even get a
win out of the three games we played (but I cam darn close
in Game 2 until a Rotate Hands hit me upside the head). I
still had a blast as the finals of NanoFictionary were going
on behind us (and being filmed) and the creator of the game,
Andy Looney, stopped by to check how things were going.
Andy’s always fun to play with, irregardless of the game.
And, while I didn’t get to play with him any this year, I
can’t wait until next year when I get the chance again.

As for Pokémon Nationals, Day 2: it was
becoming apparent to everyone that the big secret deck of
the tournament was Exeggutor d and Raichu d from Holon
Phantoms. I initially thought the deck would only be a
flash in the pan, winning only this tournament, but then I
started analyzing the existing metagame. The deck beats
ANYTHING, hands down right now because of the heavy
PokéPower and Body dependency. Watch out for this deck, all
who go to Worlds; it could be the thing to take you down.

After watching a little of the Top 8, I
headed to the Dealer Hall again for the drawing for the
Killer Bunnies prize. I didn’t win the drawing but, as I’ve
said before, I met some great people from Playroom
Entertainment and learned a great new game (and even got a
new game out of just being in the drawing!).

I left around 3 with the closing of the
dealer hall and the finals of Nationals finishing up. I
have to tip my hat to Martin, Pooka, and everyone else
involved in the design of the championship deck. Y’all have
created a monster that’s probably going to be around for at
least a few format changes (my bet is on 3 years).

----------------------------------------------

RaNd0m Thoughts…: While my personal list is pretty long, here’s the
short list of well known players you should meet.

The Craig Family (from Florida): While this
first group is a player, per se, the Craig’s are some of the
nicest people you will ever meet at any major Pokémon
event. Heidi checked my deck as I began my day and even
checked with other judges and event managers when I started
looking for my lost notepad (which I never found). The rest
of the family are all great players and great people to meet
and get to know at conventions and big-level events.

--To Miranda: I don’t care what you say next
year; you are a Werewolf and I will find some way to oust
you from the village. ;)

Phil (aka Gym Leader Phil): Phil is one of
the most wonderful players I’ve ever had the chance to
meet. He’s very knowledgeable about the game and is always
a consistent judge. This is the first year I’ve ever had
the chance to sit down and play games with Phil (not
Pokémon, mind you; mostly Werewolf and a few games of
Treehosue) and I must say I had a blast with him. He even
offered to help get some cards for my final list, but I was
able to get the cards and didn’t need to borrow them. Phil
is definitely a high caliber player with great class to
boot.

William Hung…:…has to be the most humble
human I have ever had the chance of meeting. I’ve seen his
playing and his playing is far beyond any level I could HOPE
to dream to be on. And he’s very down to earth in any
conversation I’ve ever had with him.

However, I’m a pretty shy person when it
comes to meeting new people (I know, big shock), so I’ve
never had that long of a conversation with Mr. Hung.
However, I was able to strike up a short conversation with
him at Origins about how he did and a few other things. And
then I asked a question he’d probably been asked so many
times before:

To autograph a card for me.

Now, I very much felt like a huge fanboy as I
asked, as I’m sure he’s been hassled by the question all
week. But I waited until he wasn’t in a conversation and
was writing up some stuff for his report before I approached
him. But he definitely impressed me with the way he handled
all the random approaches from other people and is
definitely one of the best strategists the game has. Will,
if you’re reading this, I’d really like to get into a decent
conversation with you about the meta sometime. You’re
insights far exceed mine.

-------------------------------

And that ends my report, and I have one more
thing up my sleeve:

The autographed card from William Hung will
be one of the prizes for my Deck Challenge, which has been
extended to end after Worlds.

Honestly, I haven’t received many entries and
I’m a little disappointed with what I’ve got. Only one deck
has really made my jaw hit the ground, and that was only
slightly jaw-dropping. I’d like a lot more entries, and I’m
releasing a prized possession (an autographed card) as most
likely the top prize for this contest.

So get those decks in for the contest ASAP.
I’m looking for something highly original and makes my jaw
drop. Should be fun!

Cardz out.

----------------------------------

Products I Found at Origins that You Should
Find Too (because they’re fun!):